I think that with the shuttle program coming to an end, and really no legitimate replacement in place, the US is done with doing much of anything in terms of going into space at least for the time being. Until we get some genuine leadership into the White House and our Congress, we will continue to see the US doing less and less in regards to space and it's exploration.
Johnson was more of a force for the space program than Kennedy. Though that might've had something to do with steering pork to Texas.
It's one of my favorite topics and I enjoy them when they start up. To me, it is the ultimate example of the failure that our Federal government has become. We went to the Moon, not just once, but 9 times, landed on it 6 times, and 12 Americans walked on its surface. Then we built the Shuttle. It's the most complex vehicle that has ever flown in space. It was unique in its abilities for space construction, satellite deployment (not just comsats: Hubble, Chandra, Galileo), retrieval and repair. Nothing else has its large cargo haul-up and return capabilities. We used to be the greatest; after the next flight, we are nothing.
Which is yet another perfect example of human beings (especially Americans) holding no interest in anything further than their own existence. Much less something that makes them feel smaller than they'd like.
List of private spaceflight companies: Even in 2005, SpaceX had ridiculous business plans and they've come through on quite a bit of it: http://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/spacex-launches-falcon-9-with-a-customer-01193/ Aerospace is alive and well! :wehaveawinner: Losing the shuttles puts a big dent in our progress, but that's about it. We'll keep going, and this time, private business will take us there!
If you think that a private rocket flight once every couple of years capable of putting one astronaut or 500 lbs. o cargo in orbit is going to replace the shuttle program you're kidding. The space station will be ready for abandonment before private industry gets things going well enough to matter.
You people expect everything to be done right the frak now, but that ain't how the world works. They'll get there eventually, just gotta have time and patience. At least be glad that someone out there is keeping the dream alive. That's a step above anything we have right now.
I don't know if you pull this stuff out of your ass or have found a really bad source, but it makes no sense and is wrong.
Private companies will only "get there eventually" if there is a financial return, which is less than certain. Manned spaceflight is pointless, anyhow. If we want to spend money on space, then we can get a hundred times as much from robotic missions.
Oh I support private efforts but I look at the government and our crashing economy and realize that private efforts will be severely hampered by both problems.
Private companies will only "get there eventually" if there is a financial return, which is less than certain. Manned spaceflight is unnecessary unless and until we have colonizing capability. If we want to spend money on space, then we can get a hundred times as much from robotic missions.
^ The counterpoint is that without manned travel colonization abilities will either never come about or be pushed very far off. Without manned experiences in stages and increasing amounts of time and locations we don't build the knowledge base to colonize.
The problem, however, is that the private sector plans all hinge on them being able to have enough government contracts until they hit the magic break even point. (None of this is overtly stated in their press releases, but its key to them hitting their numbers.) With the current mentality of, "We've got to cut the government down to nothing!" the fact that NASA will no longer own the hardware, and that the private sector is going to have cost overruns (not a slam against them, but everything hits a cost overrun sooner or later) almost ensures that the rug will be completely pulled out from under NASA and the private sector companies will be in a world of hurt.
Even under the current US administration NASA has seen annual increases in funding. I would bet $100 that ten years from now there will be at least one commercial space station in orbit, that will have seen paying private and commercial visitors.
The increases have been minor, and adjusting for inflation, NASA's budget is now less than what it was during the Apollo era, while the number of projects its assigned have increased. NASA's biggest funding increases since Apollo have all been related to shuttle accidents, and the uptick in funding during the end part of the Bush Administration was for the building of the now canceled Ares rockets. And technically, there's already two commercial space stations in orbit. Only one of them is manned, however (the ISS has seen space tourists, and must be considered to be at least a partially commercial enterprise), Bigelow's space station test module is the unmanned one. The projections for private space tourists riding up on a Soyuz rocket for $20+ million a pop were wildly over-optimistic (there's been 8 or so, instead of the dozens), and there's only been 1 repeat customer. Cutting the cost to a few million a seat will no doubt help, but that is unlikely to occur in the short term, unless there's a significant number of NASA paid for flights to begin with.
I think Dayton has a valid point. Yeah, we might see an inflatable space hotel with a ferry service or a private ferry service to the ISS, but you won't see any significant exploration because there is no profit in it.